Early Career, American Capital and Kommersant
Joorabchian worked first for his father and then as a trader at the International Petroleum Exchange in London. He became involved in the stock market and fund management, moving to New York and establishing, with his associate, Reza Irani-Kermanian, an investment company, American Capital, based in Manhattan but registered in the British Virgin Islands.
A year later, in 1999, American Capital bought 85% of the Russian newspaper Kommersant. After a month Kommersant’s ownership passed to the oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was widely suspected to have been behind American Capital’s bid for the paper -something denied by Joorabchian who was said to have given assurances that he was not working on anyone else’s behalf. Raf Shakirov, who was replaced as editor after Berezovsky’s acquisition of Kommersant, told the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday in 2005 “Joorabchian was and is very much Berezovsky’s man”.
Although Joorabchian suffered in the stock market crash of 2001, his sale of American Capital after that volatility brought him, on his own estimate, between £50 million and £60 million.
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